Foothills.

 Photos from The Foothills. All photos taken by Esther Parker.

 

Christmas Album - Artisan Guns

Apparently 17 songs just wasn't enough for a Christmas compilation and I agreed to record Artisan Guns Christmas song this Saturday (despite it all needing to be done before Tuesday) we'd planned to record it the other week but Jonathans hand ended up being put in a cast and a couple of members just couldn't make the recording.

Anyway its recorded now and is really great. We ended up using all of my guitars, Matt used my acoustic for the main part (and then doubled the end with his jumbo) then added a rhythm track on the Musicmaster, a dirty rhythm track on the Gretsch then played a part on the Tele, which Jonathan also used again later to double the Organ part.

Theres some really cool backing vocals in the end part where the "bay" and "bee" of "baby" are split in to two parts sung by reuben and matt. One sings the "bay" and holds that note while the other comes in with the bee over the top and they end together. So we recorded this part with them both infront of the mic together.

Alex added a few layers of toms, rims, tambourines and samples from his drum pad that don't make much sense on their own but together work really nicely off each other. We recorded the electronic drums with a delay plugin in time to the click so that they delay would be part of the drum performance, but also so I could adjust the delays various settings and sound later. The final section has a pretty big sounding drum kit in it, I've got 2 room mics up in the recording (and they're both fairly high in the mix) the ribbon which you can see in the photo and my Blue Kiwi set to omni in the corner behind where the photo was taken, just next to the door.

Finally Jonathan (who came straight from cricket) added some Organ which helped to tie the song together, for a couple of the parts we turned the leslie up to 8 so it was just starting to break up. Its probably one of the most satisfying sounds ever.

The album is coming out on the 6th of December as a very limited CD release in stores and online as a free download from www.littlemonsterstudio.co.nz

Artisan Guns - Crowded House Cover

This room mic on the Piano sounded great, its a shame its very quiet in the mix.

Had quite a long day recording Artisan Guns covering Crowded House song "Private Universe" for a Crowded House covers compilation album.

Reuben played a really cool muted pick bass part, for a slightly more even controlled mute over all the strings I stuffed a cloth under the strings at the bridge

lots of Drums were recorded, we started with a base of kick snare and floor tom and then Alex added Shaker, Tambourine, Woodblock, Cymbals, Hi Hat and a Tom pattern on top.

Later we doubled the Snare for a thick Phil Spector-esq multiple drummer sound.

I mixed the song late last night and today to get it sent away on time to be mastered. Phewph.

what is going on?

As some of you may know I have a bit of reputation when it comes to baking/cooking. I thought this soup was a disaster. Then I added pesto. Turns out that adding a spoon of pesto in to a soup might just be my discovery of the year. Its so good. Oh and if you're wondering yes I baked that bread.

I haven't blogged in a while, I think I am going to post less and when I do post I'll try to make it a goodie. Much like my blog things are changing a tiny bit for Little Monster. I am quite excited about some upcoming projects + prospects. But I am also excited about seeing some projects that I have been working on for a while come to a close so that you can hear them.

oh look, heres a photo of some of my pedals and amps and stuff.

Currently I am as busy as per usual. This evening I re-tracked the harmonicas on the Great North album with Hayden and I have Dale coming for some more BV's next week (ok so I lied when I said it was all tracked) and all the other projects I am currently working on are keeping me pretty busy at the moment.

In other news I am waiting for some new Focal monitors that should be in the post soon. I am very excited!

I will leave you with Artisan Guns video for "In To The Cold" Matt did a great job at directing the video, I love it so much.



I recorded "In To The Cold" earlier in the year, its available in good CD stores on Artisan Guns EP "Hearts" or on Itunes also.

Artisan Guns Ep Release Party

I was doing sound at the Rising Sun on Saturday for Artisan Guns EP Release. The show went really well. I enjoy Rising Sun when I get a decent amount of time to setup and tune everything right, it usually sounds good and either the GL2400 or Midas they usually have there keep me happy. Subterranes were amazing as per usual and Artisan Guns played an incredible set.

I took the photo above at soundcheck when I had enough time to do that, Artisan Guns draped the whole venue in flags and put ducks everywhere it looked great!

What a lovely evening!

Juice Bar - Artisan Guns, Glass Owls, Welfare Mothers

Friday night I was doing sound at the Juice Bar for Artisan Guns, Glass Owls and Welfare mothers. It was a pretty fun show. I am not the biggest fan of Juice Bars PA system, they have a limiter on the FOH that kicks in really early and all the mids are sucked like crazy. But this is all as protection from people who have no idea what they're up to. Really I don't blame them for being overprotective, its just a wee bit frustrating.

Despite this I love a good "family show" as Anthony from Glass Owls put it. Great turn out, Great performances and fun was had by all (especially when members from all 3 bands were on stage to cover Time of the Season by the Zombies and then Light and Day by The Polyphonic Spree) Also I really enjoyed Welfare Mothers set! Good.

Next weekend; Splore.

Glass Owls

Artisan Guns